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Romans 8:9 says, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, He does not belong to Christ.” So when you asked Jesus in your heart, you asked the Spirit of Christ into your heart. Your body, then, is the temple of the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:19 says: “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.” (View 1Corinthians 6:19) Then we can say when you look at unbelievers and believers, we see the unbelievers have no Holy Spirit, but believers are indwelt (we are the temple of God, aren’t we?) we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. (View Diagram)
Let us look at what Paul says in Romans. He is talking to the church now and we are going to talk about how he received a defeat in his life. He says in Romans 7:14-17 “You know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do; for what I want to do, I do not do. What I hate, I do. If I do not do what I want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I, myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me—that is in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”
So Paul is saying here—I am having trouble in this Christian life. I am having trouble doing the “be good and righteous—do not be bad and sinful.” Even though he is Paul the Super Christian, he himself is having difficulty living this Christian life. I have the desire to do what is good, but I can not carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do. No, the evil I do not want to do. This I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Can you not just hear Paul crying out? Have we not all been there at some point? Who is going to rescue me from continuing to do what I do not want to do? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature, a slave to the law of sin.”
That was Romans 7, and now Paul transitions in Romans 8. We just talked about all the defeat he was having. As a Christian, as a believer with the Holy Spirit, the temple of God he was having those difficulties described. Then he transitions in Romans and talks about the life of victory. “Therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 8:3-4 “For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. So, he condemns sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the sinful nature, but live according to the Spirit.”
So, here he is describing a life of victory according to the Spirit, and he is contrasting Romans 7 vs. Romans 8 when he was having difficulty with a life of defeat. (View Romans 7 vs 8) Now he is talking about a life of victory, but it is the life in the spirit. In fact, if you look at Romans 7 and 8, you’ll find in Romans 7, the verses we just looked at, he uses “I” 27 times, and never uses the name of the Holy Spirit. When he gets to Romans 8 and he talks about the life of victory, he never says “I,” but he uses the name of the Holy Spirit in the life of victory 14 times—making it clear the life of victory is only through the Spirit. “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of Righteousness.” Romans 8:9-10
“And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.” Romans 8:11. “Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.” Romans 8:12-14.
